Cleared father wins child custody

A man whose former partner falsely accused him of sexually abusing their daughter has won a family court custody fight for the youngster.

The man was investigated by police and social workers after the woman said her daughter had made “disclosures of sexual abuse”.

But Judge Jane Miller has ruled that the girl, now nine, should live with her father after concluding the woman’s allegations were untrue.

Detail emerged in a written ruling by the judge – published on a legal website – following a family court hearing in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Judge Miller did not identify the family involved, but she said the man and woman were both in their 40s and the local authority with responsibility for the welfare of the girl was Hampshire County Council.

She said the pair separated when the girl was a baby. A shared residence order was made under which the youngster lived with her mother five days a week and her father for two.

Nearly three years ago the mother told social workers and police that the girl had spoken of “inappropriate sexual behaviour” by her father.

The judge said she had concluded that the allegations were untrue at a hearing in December and ruled that the youngster should move in with her father on a temporary basis.

But she said the woman had gone on to repeat the allegations, and at one stage a vicar got up a petition calling for the girl to be returned to her mother.

Judge Miller said woman had a “disturbed emotional history”, was “delusional”, had suffered from depression and had been treated for alcoholism several years ago..

She added that the girl’s move to her father’s home had been an “unqualified success”.

The judge said everything was in favour of the girl being placed with her father, who struck her as “sensitive and child focused”, and she added that the youngster was doing “remarkably well” in his care.

Judge Miller said the woman’s family had been unable to accept her judgment and help the woman “move on”.

The man said some of the evidence he had heard from maternal relatives made him “feel nauseated”.

Judge Miller added: “He said that while the injustice of the allegations still rankles with him, he has come a long way, and, ‘it’s joyous to have (my daughter) with me’.”